Woomera Prohibited Area Atlas second edition released

The Woomera Prohibited Area (WPA) is a military testing range covering approximately 122,000 square kilometres of the land surface of central South Australia. Underlying it are highly economic minerals - prospective rocks of the Gawler Craton, a major province of the Earth's crust which hosts the world-class Olympic Dam copper-gold-uranium deposit and major metal - producing mines such as Prominent Hill and Challenger.

This second edition of the South Australian Atlas of Geoscience and Mineral Exploration Data for the Woomera Prohibited Area within the Gawler Craton is a compilation of currently available open file spatial information including administrative, geological, geophysical and remotely sensed data. A considerable number of government initiatives have been undertaken since the release of the Atlas first edition in 2013, which have further captured a range of important geophysical and geological data, adding to the richness and complexity of geoscientific data and information covering this important geological region within South Australia.

The WPA is an important Defence capability and testing and evaluation asset that plays a significant role in Australia's national security. The Australian Government is undertaking a Review of the Woomera Prohibited Area (WPA) Coexistence Framework. The Review aims to deliver a framework that maintains the primacy of Defence use of the WPA while maximising its significant value to South Australia's resources sector, pastoral operations, Aboriginal communities, and other stakeholders.

The South Australian Government submission on the Review includes a review of the mineralisation and mineral potential of the WPA, referencing the South Australian Atlas of Geoscience and Mineral Exploration Data for the Woomera Prohibited Area within the Gawler Craton.